"That's the day The Smoking Gun exposed as fake court documents referenced in a Calendar front-page story by Philips about a 1994 assault in Queens, NY on rapper Tupac Shakur. He says it was not his idea to web-publish and liberally source the FBI-302 documents, but rather that of his LAT editor and the paper’s lawyer. Philips also accuses the paper of failing to properly support one of their own by refusing to litigate against the target of his piece (and subsequent accuser) James 'Jimmy Henchman' Rosemond:

" 'Lawyers and editors rejected my recommendations, arguing it would be foolhardy to fight the case. The Times refused to defend the story in court. Instead, the paper crafted a retraction that sounded as if I had made up the entire story and sneaked it into print behind management's back, without the knowledge, consent or guidance of senior editors and lawyers directly involved in its publication. . . . ' "

The Voice reported that the L.A. Times replied in a statement, "We retracted Chuck Philips' March 17, 2008, article concerning an attack on rap star Tupac Shakur because we learned that documents and sources he relied on didn't support the article. Specifically, supposed FBI documents regarding the 1994 attack on Shakur turned out to be forgeries. The man who supplied the documents, James Sabatino, also provided significant additional information that was included in the article, attributed to an anonymous source. As Chuck and his editors later discovered, what Sabatino had told him was fabricated.

"Under these circumstances, we had no alternative but to acknowledge the mistake, apologize to our readers and retract the article. Nothing has happened since then to warrant withdrawing or revising the retraction. No new information has emerged that bears on the mistakes for which we apologized and which we retracted."

Lott's cameras were broken — "I'm not exactly sure how that happened" — before he was released at 4 a.m. Monday, NPPA lawyer Mickey H. Osterreicher told Journal-isms. The original charge was reduced to reckless conduct, a misdemeanor, the lawyer said.

NPPA said in a statement, "Details are sparse, but photographs posted on Twitter and other Web sites show Getty Images freelance photographer Joshua Lott being arrested on Sunday night, while another photograph shows Getty's Scott Olson with blood streaming down his face after being hit with a Chicago police baton.

"Sixty heads of state gathered in Chicago for a two-day NATO meeting to discuss the war in Afghanistan and other global defense issues. Reports say more than 2,500 journalists are there to cover the thousands of protesters who converged on the NATO meeting. Chicago's police responded to the influx of protesters and reporters by deploying thousands of police clad in riot gear, not only Chicago officers but also police pulled in from departments outside of the city."

Osterreicher "joined forces with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to support a hotline for journalists arrested or assaulted while covering NATO protesters.

"NPPA's lawyer was allowed to meet with Lott in an attorney interview room to let the photojournalist know that NPPA was there and working on his release, and Osterreicher then waited outside a Chicago police station for Lott until he was released shortly before 4 a.m. Monday morning.

"Osterreicher said that for the most part, outside of Sunday night's late clash that included Lott, the Chicago police had been 'very restrained' in dealing with photographers. . . . "

Lott's blog profile says, "Joshua is a freelance photojournalist based in Phoenix, Arizona. He was born and raised in Chicago where his dog Lenny still resides."

When the National Association of Black Journalists pulled out of the Unity: Journalists of Color, Inc., coalition last year, some convention supporters said they would not be part of NABJ's stand-alone convention, scheduled for this coming June 20-24 in New Orleans.

NABJ President Gregory H. Lee Jr.'s own employer, the New York Times Co., was one of them. Lee works at the Boston Globe, a New York Times Co. property. The Globe will be at the convention, he said, but Desiree Dancy, the parent company's vice president, diversity and inclusion, told Journal-isms then, "We are supporting Unity. We're disappointed in the fact that NABJ pulled out of Unity and yet this is a time where the organizations are needed to come together more than ever."

Asked Monday how registrations and sponsorships are in place a month from the convention, Lee gave Journal-isms this statement by email:

"I am happy to report that the 2012 NABJ Convention planning is going well. Because we are in the middle of processing registrations while closing out the pre-registration deadline which ends Friday, I am not releasing any registration counts at this time. However, I am pleased to say that our hotel room block is nearly sold out with almost 3400 room nights booked to date. Our Career Fair and Exhibit Hall is sold out completely and our sponsorship levels have already exceeded our 2011 numbers. We could not ask for more.

"Journalists and vendors are excited about the convention. If the hotel bookings and vendor participation [are] any indication, this year will be another exciting year. I can say with certainty that our volunteer convention and programming chairs, and their committees, along with our staff are working day and night to ensure that members are enthused about registering and attending this year's convention."

Onica Makwakwa, executive director of Unity Journalists, said by email on Tuesday, "With regards to the convention, at 70 days out, we are about 60% to our overall projected goals for revenue. We have a registration deadline in 37 days so it's a little premature to tell where our attendance numbers will fall. "

Unity Journalists, the new name for the reconfigured Unity coalition, did not respond Monday to a similar request for a report on the progress of its convention, scheduled for Aug. 1-4 in Las Vegas. On a floor plan for its exhibition space, red areas appear to show spots that have been sold, yellow those "reserved" and blue those unsold. (Move mouse over the areas to see specific sponsors).

"Today I fear the pendulum is swinging too far to the other side. I worry that the proliferation of advertising, entertainment and news organizations hoping to engage predominantly English-speaking Hispanics will also isolate a continuously assimilating community from a mainstream that seems to view Latinos as newcomers who don’t quite want to blend into the crowd.

"The list of news and entertainment companies jumping into bilingual or English-only programming aimed at Latinos is long and ever-growing, the two most recent examples being Cosmopolitan magazine and Univision-ABC News. . . ."

"The conservative radio host's ratings fell 27 percent in the key 25-54 demo in New York City, 31 percent in Houston-Galveston, 40 percent in Seattle-Tacoma, and 35 percent in Jacksonville, according to a selection of the March 29-April 25 Arbitron ratings provided by an industry source.

"Limbaugh's detractors attribute the losses to a rejection of the show following his controversial comments about the Georgetown law student.

" 'Clearly Sandra Fluke isn't the only one who didn't like Rush calling her a "slut" given how many viewers that comment incinerated,' one radio insider said.

"But defenders say that what looks like a decline actually represents a leveling out following increased attention from the controversy. In late March, Limbaugh boasted that his ratings had increased by as much as 60 percent in the month since he had called Fluke a 'slut' and a 'prostitute' on air."

Two weeks ago, David Hinckley of the Daily News in New York quoted Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey, as saying the spring's advertiser boycott of Limbaugh over the Fluke controversy cost Cumulus Media "a couple of million dollars." Cumulus owns just 38 of the more than 600 stations that carry Limbaugh, suggesting that the impact of the boycott was much greater.

"The new proposal, commissioned by conservative billionaire Joe Ricketts, aims to link Obama to Wright's controversial statements about race relations. But Martin said the proposal is one Romney, whose own religion has historically excluded African-Americans, would want to avoid.

" 'If Ricketts wants to do that, if the GOP they want to do that, you're now putting Mormonism on the table. You're now putting on the table how African Americans were treated by the Mormon religion,' Martin said. 'I don't think Mitt Romney really wants to have that conversation, considering he was an elder and his dad was an elder, and they really did not embrace African Americans. It is a ridiculous conversation.' "

As Beth Fouhy and Philip Elliott reported Thursday for the Associated Press, ". . . Romney pushed back against a proposal being weighed by a conservative super PAC, Ending Spending Action Fund, to run a $10 million ad campaign drawing attention to racially provocative sermons Wright delivered at a church Obama attended in Chicago. But with super PACS operating under significantly looser campaign finance restrictions than in past presidential contests, there was no guarantee Romney's words would be heeded by other groups eager to make Wright — and, by extension, race — a factor in the campaign.

" 'I want to make it very clear: I repudiate that effort,' Romney told reporters after a campaign stop in Florida. 'I think it's the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign. I hope that our campaigns can be respectively about the future and about issues and about vision for America.' "

ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith received the "Saturday Night Live" treatment over the weekend in an impersonation by Jay Pharoah, who is in his second season on the NBC show. Pharoah is most known for his impressions of such celebrities as Will Smith, Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington and Kanye West. (Video)

Adrienne Bankert will co-anchor the "CBS 11 News This Morning," weekdays from 4:30 to 7 a.m., beginning June 25, KTVT-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth announced on Monday. "Bankert joins CBS 11 from KCRA and sister station KQCA in Sacramento, where she has worked on the morning news team since 2004. For nearly six of those years, she has been a morning and noon news anchor and has hosted the monthly magazine program 'Common Ground.' "

Syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. introduced his new novel, "Freeman," before friends, family and colleagues Saturday at the University of Maryland in College Park. Pitts said he was inspired and intrigued by the determination of newly freed ex-slaves to travel long distances to find loved ones from whom they had been separated for decades. "Almost everyone in this book is dealing with the question of who am I in this new reality," he said. "I don't know who you'd walk 1,000 miles for. That is extraordinarily powerful." Among those in attendance from the McClatchy Co., owner of the Herald, was Anders Gyllenhaal, vice president, news and Washington editor.

When Liberian journalist Mae Azango wrote an article about the taboo topic of female genital mutilation, she and her 9-year-old daughter became the targets of multiple threats. On public radio's "On the Media," host Brooke Gladstone spoke with Azango about the reporting that forced the Liberian government to finally take a public position on the practice. (audio)